Credit: HW University
Energy communities will play a key role in building the more decentralised, less carbon intensive, and fairer energy systems of the future. Such communities enable local prosumers (consumers with own generation and storage) to generate, store and trade energy with each other using locally owned assets, such as wind turbines, rooftop solar panels and batteries. In turn, this enables the community to use more locally generated renewable generation, and shifts the market power from large utility companies to individual prosumers.
Energy community projects often involve jointly-owned assets such as community-owned wind turbines or shared battery storage. Yet, this raises the question of how these assets should be controlled - often in real time, and how the energy outputs jointly-owned assets should be shared fairly among community members, given not all members have the same size, energy needs or demand profiles.
Young people working for Siemens Gamesa, ScottishPower Renewables and BAM Nuttall, among others, were honoured last night at the virtual Scottish Renewables 2021 Young Professionals Green Energy Awards.
The event, which would normally take place as a black-tie event in Glasgow, was hosted online for a second year with more than 300 guests tuning in to the broadcast-quality live awards show.
Winners include offshore wind farm engineer Eishar Bassan of Siemens Gamesa, for her role in changing workplace culture for the better.
Her work has seen a Diversity and Inclusion Strategy implemented across the company’s worldwide operations.
Anthony Kinsella of ScottishPower Renewables was the Innovator Award winner for his work on virtual synchronous machines, which could change the way the electricity system is managed in the future.
Plans revealed for huge Scottish renewable energy hub
Forth Ports has unveiled ambitious proposals for the creation of Scotland’s largest and best located renewable energy hub on a 175ac site at the Port of Leith.
The £40M private investment will see the creation of a bespoke, riverside marine berth capable of accommodating the world’s largest offshore wind installation vessels.
The facility will feature a heavy lift capability of up to 100t per square metre (t/m
2), backed up by 14ha of adjacent land for logistics and marshalling.
This will be supplemented by the upgrading of a 56ha cargo handling site to accommodate lay down, assembly, supply chain and manufacturing opportunities.